Notes
This book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical or financial advice, and it's no substitute for a GP or a debt adviser who knows you. The services I mention are for the UK as I found them in September 2026.
I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 6, 12, 14, 19, 20, 22 and 26. The brown envelope, the eleven tabs, the school trip form, the renewal, the dentist and the expenses claim are invented.
Before you start. The ADHD wording is from the NHS pages on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults, and the two-week guide for low mood from the NHS pages on depression, both as verified for earlier books in this series. StepChange, Citizens Advice and National Debtline are named on the NHS page on coping with financial worries. The earlier book on money post is Open the envelope.
Chapter 2. The earlier book on housework is The dishes take four minutes.
Chapter 3. Masicampo and Baumeister, "Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101, 2011, pages 667 to 683. Laboratory studies with student participants. The claim that the chunk never comes is my observation. The earlier book on work that matters is Start it badly.
Chapter 4. Roy and Christenfeld, "Effect of task length on remembered and predicted duration", Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 15, 2008, pages 202 to 207. Tasks of one to fifteen minutes. Roy, Mitten and Christenfeld, "Correcting memory improves accuracy of predicted task duration", Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 14, 2008, pages 266 to 275. Three experiments. The claim that delay inflates the estimate is mine.
Chapter 5. Steel, "The nature of procrastination: a meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure", Psychological Bulletin 133, 2007, pages 65 to 94. Sirois and Pychyl, "Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: consequences for future self", Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7, 2013, pages 115 to 127. The arithmetic of boredom is mine.
Chapter 7. Steel as above.
Chapter 8. Masicampo and Baumeister as above. The claim that most waiting is a chase not sent is my observation.
Chapter 9. Sirois and Pychyl as above. Tice and Baumeister, "Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: the costs and benefits of dawdling", Psychological Science 8, 1997, pages 454 to 458. Two studies of students. The claim about forms and tiredness is mine.
Chapter 10. Masicampo and Baumeister as above.
Chapter 11. Masicampo and Baumeister as above.
Chapter 13. Tice and Baumeister as above. Their finding concerns academic work, and the chapter's claim that admin has no quality dimension is mine.
Chapter 15. Steel as above.
Chapter 16. Golman, Hagmann and Loewenstein, "Information avoidance", Journal of Economic Literature 55, 2017, pages 96 to 135, as verified for the earlier book Open the envelope. The claim that a fair proportion of unopened post needs no action is my observation.
Chapter 17. Wohl, Pychyl and Bennett, "I forgive myself, now I can study: how self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination", Personality and Individual Differences 48, 2010, pages 803 to 808. 134 first-year students, correlational. Sirois, "Procrastination and stress: exploring the role of self-compassion", Self and Identity 13, 2014, pages 128 to 145. Four samples. Sirois and Pychyl as above.
Chapter 18. Masicampo and Baumeister, and Tice and Baumeister, as above. The rest is mine.
Chapter 21. Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts and Wardle, "How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world", European Journal of Social Psychology 40, 2010, pages 998 to 1009. 96 volunteers, 82 with usable data, and the time to plateau ranged from 18 to 254 days. Masicampo and Baumeister as above. The earlier book on switching tasks, referred to in chapter 14, is One thing at a time.
Chapter 23. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.
Chapter 24. The NHS ADHD and depression pages, and the debt charities, as above. The earlier book on work that matters as above. No claim is made about the effectiveness of any service.
Chapter 25. Lally and colleagues, and Wohl and colleagues, as above.